An important link in the fulfillment of the 1963 Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Health Care Centers Reconstruction Act is the family. It is estimated that between 55 and 66 percent of the chronically mentally disabled are released to their families after hospitalizations averaging less than two weeks. This project assumes that if the family is to carry such an important responsibility in the rehabilitative efforts on behalf of the mentally ill, it is important to understand (1) how it is affected by the presence of a chronically mentally ill and dependent person; and (2) how it copes with the additional financial, emotional, and structural demands which are placed on it. This research analyzes the family's response to the presence of a chronically mentally disabled and dependent person. Individuals with a familial relationship to a mentally ill person have been selected for non-structured, tape recorded interviews. The respondents, called key-informants within the anthropological literature, represent parents, siblings, children and spouses of people who have been diagnosed as having had major psychotic episodes. A sample of 28 cases was selected as a "purposeful" non-random sample. It represents exclusively white, middle-class families. The interviews focus on the respondent's life experience and his or her perception of the life experience of other family members. The chronology begins with the onset of symptoms and extends through the ultimate resolution of the family's responsibility toward the patient.